Vintage Fight

You can”™t make wine without stomping grapes, but liquor store operators and New York winemakers say they could be stomped out of business if a proposal by Gov. David Paterson is adopted that would allow wine to be sold in supermarkets and convenience stores.

Those markets looking to sell wine for the first time note other states do it, including New Jersey, with no noticeable decline in wine and liquor stores. They are finding an ally in Long Island farm representatives, who see another outlet for their products.

Under current state law, wine sales are allowed only at 2,400 liquor store locations authorized by the state Liquor Authority. Paterson would like the market to be expanded to include grocery stores, mini-marts, supermarkets and even gas stations. Estimates vary, but there are about 19,000 such outlets in the state.

The governor says expansion of wine sales, if approved by the state Legislature, would add $105 million in new licensing fee revenues for the state in the 2009-10 budget, $54 million in 2010-11 and $3 million per year every year afterwards. New York is one of only about 10 states that prohibits sale of wine in food retailers. No state has changed its law to allow such sales in nearly a quarter century with Massachusetts voters two years ago soundly defeating such a proposal.

A statewide coalition known as the Last Store on Main Street, representing 2,750 New York wine sellers and liquor store owners, says the move would force more than 1,000 such stores out of business and lead to a loss of more than 4,000 jobs.

“Of course it will affect us financially,” said Alfredo Cruz, president of the Wine Emporium in Bronxville. He said the financial doldrums are costing liquor stores sales and revenue. And the customers who are buying wine, he said, are economizing, instead of spending $25 for a bottle of wine, more people are spending half that amount.

“In this economy no one is coming in, there is no foot traffic and people don”™t throw parties,” Cruz said, describing it as the worst sales slump in his 26 years in business. “And my rent didn”™t go down. It”™s killing us.”

“This (proposal) will cost jobs and increase the likelihood of underage drinking,” said Michael McKeon, a spokesman for The Last Store on Main Street.

Small winemakers are also alarmed. They say the prospect of thousands of supermarket outlets would induce consumers to buy mass-produced wines there rather than at local wines in liquor stores or at the wineries themselves. New York”™s home-grown wine business has been flourishing in recent decades with the total number of wineries statewide rising from 13 in the 1970s to some 225 wineries today.

The National Supermarket Association, supports the proposal, according to Nelson Eusebio, the group”™s executive director. He cites New Jersey, which allows wine sales in food stores and there is no dearth of liquor shops he says.

The Long Island Farm Bureau has also expressed support for the measure, saying that some supermarket chains have pledged to carry New York State wines, thus offering an opportunity to increase sales. Long Island”™s North and South Forks have witnessed wine booms in the last three decades.

But Cruz and others say there are more than revenue reasons for keeping the current system. They say supermarkets would lack the ability to prevent underage drinkers from buying or shoplifting wine from the stores. “There”™s so many things that could go wrong,” Cruz said.

He said one bottle of wine is equivalent to four bottles of beer in terms of the potency, and said a teen procuring wine from a supermarket could quickly mean trouble. “A kid could walk into any grocery store and stick a wine bottle down his pants and be out of there. And it would take a lot less for a kid to drink a bottle of wine and get totally ossified than beer.”

He said the additional costs ”“ from drunken driving to teen alcohol problems ”“ would eat into any budget gain from additional licensing fees. “Those few dollars our governor thinks he”™s going to get from licensing fees, it”™s not going to happen,” said Cruz.

And Cruz, who loves his business, sees another flaw in the plan. It would be bad for the wine business, as supermarkets would stock inferior vintages without knowing better. Cruz, who has traveled to growing regions throughout the world to learn of wines, notes customers appreciate his expertise, but would not find it in a supermarket. “You”™re not going to see a wine expert in the A&P,” he said.